“Education
is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
William Butler
Yeats
By
Tommie Saylor
Kennedy
High School Principal
This
week national news outlets reported the government’s release of a sliver of
educational data. According to the news, the government is reporting that
this year’s standardized tests show that only 37 percent of our graduating
seniors are college ready.
Most
people are shocked because – in the minds of most Americans – either you pass a
test or you fail a test. So, if only 37 percent “passed” this test, that
means 63 percent failed. How can 63 percent of our high school seniors
fail a standardized test? What is wrong with our schools? Something needs
to be done, right?
Well,
before we storm the local school demanding satisfaction and change, let’s take
a closer look at the numbers.
First
of all, college ready does not mean pass, and not ready for college does not
mean fail. In fact, the line between “college ready” and “not college
ready” is an arbitrary line drawn by some faceless individual tucked away in an
unknown office using math algorithm’s unknown to all but him.
According
to the standardized test I took when I was a high school senior, I should have
had nothing to do with college. My score was so far below the arbitrary
“college ready” line, and a career working at McDonald’s was better over even
attempting to attend college.
Yet
today, here I sit with a Bachelor of Science degree in the field of education
as a certified science teacher, and a Master of Arts degree in administration
in the field of education as a certified public school administrator.
The
standardized test was not a good indicator in determining my ability to be
successful in college. You measure college success in the tenacity and
resolve of the individual to get a degree no matter what obstacles stand in the
way. Not by some standardized test score.
Understand
that about a third of American’s have college degrees. Having a little
over a third of our high school seniors scoring as “college ready” on
standardized tests makes sense. Not everyone is going to go to college and
not everyone wants to go to college. Assuming that every high school senior
should be “college ready” upon graduation is a fallacy.
The
goal of today’s high school is not to get students ready for college; it is to
get students ready for life.
If
a student wants to go to college and is capable, then it is our job to get them
“college ready.” But if a student wants to have nothing to do with college, is clearly
not college material, then our goal is to provide them with the skills to find
gainful employment upon leaving high school.
Our
mission is to get students ready for life and get them ready to become
productive members of our society.
The
real question should be this: What are we doing for the two thirds of students
that will not earn a college degree? The demand for skilled trades in today’s
society is enormous (and growing every day). Are we preparing students to enter
the skilled trades market? Are we teaching students how to buy a car or rent
an apartment? Do our graduates know how to balance a checkbook and establish
and follow a budget?
Those
are the things we should measure. Measuring the quality of today’s high schools
by the number of seniors who are “college ready” is more than just wrong, it is
educationally dangerous.
It
is dangerous because it is natural for institutions to place as many resources as
possible into that which is measured, starving all other aspects of the
institution. As our society measures the quality of our schools by no
other measure than college readiness and our schools adjust curriculum to
college prep in response, we are committing a great disservice to the two
thirds of our students that will not end up with college degrees.
Understanding
the fundamentals of Algebra 2 and Chemistry makes sense to those heading to
college, but for those seeking employment after high school these classes hold
little value. Classes that would hold more value to the “silent two
thirds” of students that will not end up with a college degree, classes such as
Home Economics and Auto Mechanics, were pushed aside in favor of the Michigan
Merit (college prep) Curriculum forced upon our schools by the State of
Michigan.
This
dangerous practice of only offering a college prep curriculum leads to an
increased number of high school dropouts, because high school holds no value
for these students. This also leads to classroom misconduct because many
of the students don’t see the value in what is being taught.
By
measuring the value of our schools by a single test, we not only devalue
everything else that takes place in our high schools, we also devalue two
thirds of our students.
How
and where will you lead them. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence
by design.
